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Annual Healthcare Humanity Awards : Dr Ker Khor Jia
Dr Ker Khor Jia, Consultant
[Caption: A group photo together with the surgery team during the mission trip to The Philippines in May 2017]
At the annual Healthcare Humanity Awards this year, Consultant Dr Ker Khor Jia together with some other 97 healthcare professionals were lauded for their dedication in serving the community. The award recipients were recognised for going beyond their call of duty to help others. Dr Ker received the Healthcare Humanity Award under the Open Category for volunteering at MINDS (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore) and the Tzu Chi Free Clinics regularly on top of her full clinic sessions at NSC.
“I have been actively involved in overseas humanitarian mission trips since my medical school days. So far, I have travelled to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Philippines multiple times with the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA). During these mission trips, I work very closely with other doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and volunteers in the surgery team, performing surgeries on conditions such as epidermal cysts, lipomas, fibromas, keloids and skin cancers for needy patients. During the most recent trip to Tacloban, Philippines in May 2017, our team of 7 surgeons performed a total of 283 surgeries in 3 days. In addition to overseas mission trips, I join the Tzu Chi Free Health Screening and Medical Clinic on a regular basis, providing medical consultations to patients from low-income families, as well as ad-hoc community free health screening events.
A few years ago, I was approached by a friend to join the MINDS (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore) health screening events, and ever since then, I have been participating in these voluntary events regularly, providing dermatological consults for patients and their family members.
I really treasure the opportunity and am thankful to possess the ability and professional knowledge to help the underprivileged in society, whether locally or overseas. Seeing patients being relieved of their suffering motivates me to do more to help those in need. This is also the reason why I chose to do medicine.”